Longtime Youth Baseball Umpire Pothier Dies at 62
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Berkshire County baseball community this week is mourning the loss of veteran umpire Rich Pothier, who died on a trip to Florida after nearly five decades behind the plate at various levels of amateur ball.
"That's what he does," Don Singleton said of Pothier's regular trips to the Sunshine State during March. "Originally, he was scheduled to go see the Red Sox or the Tigers or whatever.
"It's MCLA week, and they're down there. I know in the past he'd go to an MCLA game in the morning and the Tigers in the afternoon.
"It was kind of his spring training."
Pothier's passion for baseball brought him to Florida each winter and kept him in blue for 48 summers dating back to his start as a teenager in Marblehead in 1974.
After coming west to attend Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in 1978, Pothier, 62, found a home in the Berkshires and made a name for himself on local diamonds.
In 2020, he officiated his 3,000th game, a fall ball meeting between high school teams from Wahconah and Mount Greylock.
At the time, he told iBerkshires that he loved umpiring from the first day he stepped behind the plate and treasured the way it allowed him to maintain a connection to the game.
"I did the Babe Ruth World Series in 2016," Pothier said. "I did the Little League World Series in 2011. Both were just great, great times and great baseball and provided some great memories.
"But all 3,000 have been memorable in one way or another. I just love it. From the time I put the gear on back when I was 14 until now, I've loved every minute of it."
Singleton, a past president of the local board of umpires said Pothier, who was serving as president when he died, was one of his best friends.
In addition to working nearly 900 games together the pair frequently shared a meal after games and were travel companions on trips to regional and national tournaments.
"I met Rich first in 1991 when I first started with Williamstown Little League and he was in the North Adams Little League," Singleton said. "We both joined the high school association the following year, and we've often been seen as a partnership.
"One of the things we're both very proud of is we both got to work the Little League World Series. When I did it in 2005, Little League gave you a room where you can have family come, and Rich came for mine. When he was there in 2011, I was there for his.
"That was nice that we both got to do that and were there for the experience."
Singleton was on the crew for Pothier's 3,000th game. So was another longtime collaborator, George Beckwith.
Beckwith credits Pothier with recruiting him to the vocation in the 1990s. The two met when Beckwith was running the Babe Ruth League in North Adams and Pothier was working as an umpire.
"He taught me the game," Beckwith said. "As long as I've been doing it, if something unusual came up, I could always check with him. He critiqued me all the time, and the reason was, he wanted me to be a good umpire."
Beckwith said he has a "101 memories" of Pothier after umping hundreds of games together, but one of the fondest came when Pothier was in the field and Beckwith was in the dugout.
"It was a bang-bang play at first, and he called the guy out," Beckwith recalled. "It was the right call, but my team was struggling, and I had to do something to spark them up. … I go out there and say, 'Rich, his foot was a foot off the bag.' He said, 'No it wasn't, George.' I put my hands up about 12 inches apart and said, 'His foot was off this much.' He said, 'Put your hands down, George.'
"Finally, I couldn't keep a straight face, and I started smiling. And he smiled because he knew what I wanted, and he threw me out. The kids started hooting and hollering.
"It was the only time I ever got thrown out of a game."
When word got out this week that Pothier had died, Beckwith received scores of phone calls and text messages from friends and colleagues asking about it. Among the remembrances was a Facebook post by the North Adams-based La Festa Baseball Exchange recognizing Pothier's contribution to the game.
"Rich was an avid supporter and donated many hours to the Exchange," the post read. "He was a big part of the baseball community, and his presence will be missed."
Singleton agreed that his friend left a lasting legacy in the county.
"A big role he played in our umpire association was as one of our top officials," Singleton said. "He had such a generosity of sharing and providing feedback with newer and younger officials. The way we do it is we require younger officials to work a double-header early in their first year with Rich or me or one of the senior guys, like a Babe Ruth double-header where they can be seen working the plate and working the bases. And we'll do a post-game to talk about what went well and what didn't.
"He was so good with our newer officials at sharing his game knowledge and experience and providing that feedback to guys who want to get better. … As an official, when you umpire a lot of amateur baseball, maybe you flatter yourself a little bit, but you are doing something to promote the game."
Tags: umpire, youth sports,
